Bar-Ilan University’s Azrieli Faculty of Medicine held its end-of-year graduation ceremony and annual conference on Translational Research recently. Two of the international students stood out – Dr. Praveen Koganti, who graduated with a PhD, and Mahua Bhattacharya, who received a special award for her research poster.

International Doctoral Student from India Graduates

Nine PhD students graduated from the Faculty of Medicine in June this year – one of whom was an international student from New Delhi, India.

Dr. Praveen Koganti received his doctoral degree (PhD) in Medical Sciences: Molecular and Cellular Cancer Biology. Dr. Koganti conducted his research in the laboratory of Prof. Michael Blank, Associate Professor in Molecular and Cellular Cancer Biology at the Azrieli Faculty of Medicine.

Dr. Praveen Koganti

The laboratory investigates the molecular processes operating in and leading to the generation of cancer cells (the process is known as carcinogenesis), cancer progression, as well as mechanisms underlying the ability of tumor cells ‘to escape’ the destructive impact of anticancer therapies used in clinics.

The research program addresses key questions in cancer biology: What are the fundamental molecular mechanisms operating in cancer? How are they regulated? How do they affect tumor cell sensitivity to anticancer therapies, and most importantly, how can we target cancer-related molecular networks to cure this devastating disease?

The title of Dr. Koganti’s PhD thesis was the “Emerging role of the E3 ubiquitin ligase SMURF2 on RNA editing regulatory factor ADAR1”, which may be complicated for the lay-person to understand, but it enabled him to further his research as a Postdoctoral Scientist at Cedars-Sinai Samuel Oschin Cancer Institute in Los Angeles, California.

Cedars-Sinai was recently ranked number six in the “Best Hospitals Honor Roll” in the US (US News & World Report), which shows that Bar-Ilan University’s graduates are accepted by the best of the best.

Mahua Bhattacharya Wins Research Poster Award

Mahua Bhattacharya from Mumbai, India, won an award for the research poster she presented at the Translational Research conference. The poster she produced was titled, “Non-optimal codon usage determines the protein level dynamics during the cell cycle.”

These posters give PhD students the opportunity to test their skills in communicating research beyond their own discipline. Producing a research poster can be a very useful way for students to clarify their doctoral project not only to others, but also to themselves. It also gives them practical experience in communicating their research to different audiences in a graphic way. Posters include all the parts of a scientific paper – abstract, short intro, results, and short discussion/conclusions.

(L-R) Dr. Milana Morgenstern and Mahua Bhattacharya

Ms. Bhattacharya is a PhD student in the laboratory of Dr. Milana Morgenstern. Dr. Morgenstern, who recently received a BIU’s Rector’s Award for Scientific Innovation, is a Senior Lecturer, Principal Investigator, and Head of the Cancer Genomics and BioComputing of Complex Diseases lab.

The title of Ms. Bhattacharya’s PhD is “Studying the effect of HPV integration at a chromosomal level in cervical cancer”.

Bar-Ilan University’s International School and the Azrieli Faculty of Medicine would like to congratulate Dr. Praveen Koganti and Mahua Bhattacharya on their achievements.